He filled up the blank with grief. As he sat weaving, he every
now and then moaned low, like one in pain: it was the sign that his
thoughts had come round again to the sudden chasm- to the empty
evening-time. And all the evening, as he sat in his loneliness by
his dull fire, he leaned his elbows on his knees, and clasped his head
with his hands, and moaned very low- not as one who seeks to be heard.
And yet he was not utterly forsaken in his trouble. The repulsion
Marner had always created in his neighbours was partly dissipated by
the new light in which this misfortune had shown him. Instead of a man
who had more cunning than honest folks could come by, and, what was
worse, had not the inclination to use that cunning in a neighbourly
way, it was now apparent that Silas had not cunning enough to keep his
own. He was generally spoken of as a 'poor mushed creatur'; and that
avoidance of his neighbours, which had before been referred to his
ill-will, and to a probable addiction to worse company, was now
considered mere craziness.
This change to a kindlier feeling was shown in various ways. The
odour of Christmas cooking being on the wind, it was the season when
superfluous pork and black puddings are suggestive of charity in
well-to-do families; and Silas's misfortune had brought him
uppermost in the memory of housekeepers like Mrs Osgood. Mr
Crackenthorp, too, while he admonished Silas that his money had
probably been taken from him because he thought too much of it, and
never came to church, enforced the doctrine by a present of pigs'
pettitoes, well calculated to dissipate unfounded prejudices against
the clerical character.
Pages:
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121